1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method of displaying, on a terminal screen of mainly cellular phones, various types of incoming call information, such as incoming telephone calls, incoming e-mails, incoming telephone calls leaving voice messages (messages to an answering-machine function), etc.
2. Description of the Related Art
Traditionally, on a cellular phone (including PHS (Personal Handyphone System)), if a user can not respond when an incoming telephone call or e-mail is received, information on the other party (caller or sender) and a date are stored as an incoming history into memory means of the cellular phone, and a sign is displayed for notifying the user of presence of that incoming call. For example, an icon representing an incoming call, an icon representing an incoming e-mail and an icon representing presence of a voice message (messages left on an answering machine), or text messages such as “incoming call was received” or “two (2) e-mails have been received” are displayed on a screen of the cellular phone.
The user who looks at these notifications identifies types of incoming calls which could not be responded and the number thereof, manipulates the cellular phone to identify caller information, contents of the e-mails and contents of the voice messages and calls back or sends back e-mails.
As prior art references related to these display methods of incoming-call histories, for example, stated in patent document 1 are that, in a folding-type cellular phone which is provided with a sub-display unit along with a main display unit to enable the sub-display unit to be able to be visually recognized in a folded state, in the case that a user can not respond to an incoming call when it is in the folded state, displaying incoming-call histories on the sub-display unit and, by subsequently operating a button on the side of the body, displaying detail information thereof (information on the other party, date, contents of the e-mail), remaining the folded state (see Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open Pub. No. 2002-281130).
However, in conventional examples, it is possible to comprehend what type of and how many incoming calls were received, but it is not possible to comprehend in what order the incoming calls of different types were generated at a glance. Therefore, traditionally, if a user wants to handle the incoming calls in order of occurrence, the user has to identify the incoming e-mail history and the incoming telephone call history individually to determine the order of incoming calls of the different types. In this individual identification operation, since it is not possible to identify different types of incoming calls on the same screen, the user has to perform screen switching operation, resulting in wasting extra times.
Also in conventional examples, an order of priority desired by the user will not displayed in connection with the incoming-call display, and the incoming-call display will not be sorted depending on the order of priority. For example, incoming calls for sales promotions or advertising maybe handled later in some cases. On the contrary, there may be the case that incoming calls from family members or business incoming calls should be handled urgently, and in such a case, if the incoming-call display is in upper rank, this is easily distinguished by the user.